RALEIGH, N.C. — There the Devils go, being resilient again, the trademark of their remarkable season. What they gave away in Newark, they took right back on the road — even without Jamie Langenbrunner. Now the Devils have the lead that has stood up for them every time since they started winning Cups.

“Pulling off this win, in [the first game] on the road, after losing our captain, says a lot. We’re a step closer to where we want to go,” Martin Brodeur said after their 3-2 overtime victory over the Hurricanes last night.

They reclaimed home-ice advantage when Travis Zajac converted his own rebound at 4:58 of overtime. It gave them the 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series that has proven victorious the last 10 times they have had it. The last time they lost a series after a 2-1 lead was in 19912 against the Rangers.

Significantly, New Jersey snapped its six-game Raleigh playoff-losing streak, and ended the Hurricanes’ all-time playoff overtime mastery of the Devils at five games.

But they saw their leads vanish twice, and headed to another overtime. Coach Brent Sutter suggested they play more aggressively this time.

“We couldn’t let this game get away,” Zajac said. “It was something we learned from Game 2.”

On Friday, they never put an overtime shot on Cam Ward before losing 2-1, and they were tightening up again as overtime loomed.

“The last eight minutes of the hockey game, we don’t like to play that way. We sat back and were on our heels,” Sutter said. “We talked about it before overtime, how we were going to get back to how we play [moving forward].

“We know how we need to play, and when we play that way, it’s a lot more fun for the players. We gave ourselves a chance to succeed in overtime, something we didn’t do [Friday].”

Zach Parise started the winning sequence by skating across the top of the slot and firing. The rebound fell at the left front of the net, and Zajac flubbed his first shot. That rebound returned to him, however, and he put it in the top of the net.

Parise also started the evening by stretching his goal streak to all three games of these playoffs.

Brian Rolston, taking Langenbrunner’s slot, bumped Joni Pitkanen behind the net, and Pitkanen’s clearing attempt up the left boards was intercepted by Paul Martin. Parise was 10-feet out to deflect home Martin’s shot/pass at 6:04 of the first.

That lead lasted 31 seconds, as Ryan Bayda scored his first playoff goal, beating Brodeur’s glove.

Brian Gionta put the Devils back in front with 8.6 seconds left in the first. Brendan Shanahan pressed Joe Corvo behind the net and from his right end, Corvo turned the puck over and it turned into an inexplicable pass on Gionta’s tape. Gionta slipped around Ray Whitney then put his first of these playoffs and 18th career.

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Bobby Holik made his first playoff appearance with New Jersey since 2002, joining lineup because of absence of Langenbrunner. . . . Bryce Salvador suffered a bloody nose when sticked by Bayda in the first, but the Devils failed to capitalize on the double minor. . . . Brodeur made his NHL record 161st straight playoff start.